Indian business community should give priority to products made in India, said Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal. In Hyderabad, he spoke to the All India Vaishya Federation (AIYF).
Industry and manufacturing need to be promoted in India, said the Minister, to boost employment and bring prosperity to our people. In support of PM Modi’s call to spend at least 5 percent of their travel budget on local products, the Minister said our artisans, craftsmen and entrepreneurs deserve support.
In the last 30 years, India’s GDP has grown by 11.8 times. He recalled a time when a lot of people focused on food, clothing, and shelter as basic needs. He observed that the situation has improved tremendously now due to the government’s extensive focus on structural reforms that ensured that people were freed from the constant struggle for the necessities of life.
He said his favorite reform was the government’s success in building over 12 crore toilets. This made safe sanitation a basic necessity for every household. It wasn’t just about toilets, it was about dignity and self-respect, especially for women.
The Minister said the government provided food grains for nearly 80 crore citizens under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and another 5 kilos per person per month. It should be gratifying to taxpayers that their money is going to help those in need. 50 Crore people are now being given free, quality healthcare, clean drinking water is now taken to every household through taps under the Jal Jivan Mission, he noted.
All these initiatives he called the foundational work to free up our population, especially our youth, to take up activities that spearhead growth and development, helping us reap our incredible demographic dividend. Now, our youth don’t have to struggle for necessities and they’re highly aspirational. “They want to be innovators and entrepreneurs and drive growth”, he said.
The Minister talked about women’s basic needs, especially menstrual hygiene. In response to concerns about girls dropping out of school when they turn puberty, the Minister said the government provides sanitary napkins for cheap. In order to protect and empower women, he called for more awareness programs about menstrual hygiene. In the next year, AIVF should make sure every woman in the nation has access to sanitary pads and knowledge about them.
In his speech, the Minister said India was ready to take decisive steps to become a developed nation. This quest will be driven forward by India’s huge youth population, he said. “India is the only bright spot in the world right now. There’s a lot of hope for India”, he said. He noted that developed nations were now aspiring to enter into FTAs with India and said that the fastest FTA in the world was concluded between India and UAE in just 88 days. Other GCC nations are also gearing up to sign FTAs with India, he said.
India’s history, its culture, traditions, and value systems have a lot of strength, the Minister said, citing the Prime Minister’s emphasis on going back to our roots. It’s time to end social discrimination and end divisive tendencies in New India. The Minister referred to the ‘panch pran’ given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and said that the pran of unity and oneness formed an integral part of the panch pran. The whole nation has to work together in unity and oneness if India is to realize its immense potential.
He expressed confidence that if the whole nation worked together as one, our children would learn of our efforts through their history books rather than the glory days of kings, Nizams and colonialism.